QUICK UPDATE

I'm going out of town for several days so I won't be posting anything here for a week or so. Thought this would be a good time to get some folks caught up on things. If you've followed this blog from the start then you already know all this, but I keep getting more and more questions from people I meet who want to know what happened and when/if we're coming back.

Again, Bill Doyle and I decided we didn't want to stay with the CBS owned 97.1 property in Detroit when our contract was running out last year. It still amazes me how many people remain mad at the company thinking we were fired. Nothing could be further from the truth. They offered us a multi-year contract to stay (even after the format went sports) to do a non-sports morning drive show. We did that for the last 9 and a half weeks of our time there until they realized we were NOT going to re-up with them and they took us off the air after our December 7th show because local management didn't want to allow us after nearly a decade of service and good ratings to say goodbye to our listeners. It is sad and typical of the industry. So again, no, we were never 'fired'. We chose to leave and they wanted us to stay.

The next issue is why we haven't been on air since. Under our old CBS contract there was one of these onerous non-compete clauses which states that if we leave, for a period of 12 months after the end of our contract, we legally aren't allowed to accept an on-air job with another company's radio station in the Detroit market. Basically it is designed to ruin your career in a particular market by hoping the fan base will move on and forget all about you so that CBS doesn't have to compete against you. CBS made it clear they would invoke that clause, so while we entertained calls from places like Dallas, Chicago and others, Bill and I decided to tough it out with no income for one year so that we could return to Detroit. We always wanted to stay, just with a better company. Keep in mind our CBS contract technically ended on Dec. 31st of '07, meaning we cannot legally be on the air till January of '09 which is about 14/15 weeks away now. Even though they took us off the air after Dec. 7th they filled in the time with re-runs till the end of the year while they continued trying to call us about staying, so in other words that 12 month clock didn't start ticking till midnight of Dec. 31st/Jan. 1.

We'll see in January if the CBS plan worked and it rendered us forgettable and killed our careers. I hope not, because we sure haven't forgotten about all you guys!

Don't mean to bore all who already knew this. Like I said, I just get asked about it all the time and I wanted to once again clear it up. I realize people get busy and have much more happening in their lives than the goings on of one radio show.

Talk to you soon.

MIKE THOMPSON

the cartoonist of the Free Press together with some other very talented folks came up with this gem. An homage to Kwame as he leaves office. If this doesn't make you laugh out loud it will at least make you smile. Check it out. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/BLOG2401/80917007

OLD BITCH IN THE PARKING LOT

I had my kids out the other day. It was me, my 3 year old son and 20 month old girl. I had just parked my Explorer outside a discount store. Non-compete clauses invoked by CBS equals frequent visits to discount stores. It was raining, so I was glad I found a good spot not too far from the doors. I had just gotten out of the car and had Jack's door open, was about to unbuckle him, when the entire car lurched with a loud BANG.

A car had been backing out of a space and ran right into my back bumper. This was no tap.

The car starts driving away. I close my son's door and run alongside then in front of the car, yelling for it to stop. Wouldn't you know it. 85 year old looking woman driver. Once she stops I walk to her window where she's already got her excuse ready. It's important to point out that she KNEW she hit me and was driving off anyway. She knew she hit me because before I could say anything she says, "Oh, the back window is broke and doesn't roll down anymore so I didn't see ya - "

I cut her off with something about it not mattering; that she hit my car and was running away.
I would submit if you have to lower a glass window to see, perhaps you shouldn't be driving.
At this point her eyes narrowed and she dropped her I'm-just-a-poor-sweet-old-grandma-so-you-have-to-feel-sorry-for-me bullshit.

"And you're gonna make a big stink about it!?" she says to me. I hadn't even looked at my car yet, but the point was she knew she hit me and she was going to leave the scene!

I tell her damn right I'm going to, that I'm going to call the cops since she was taking off. I then went to look at my car and she got out to survey it with me. I could not believe, with how hard our car rocked, that there was no visible damage. It was one of those things where the bumpers just lined up perfectly and took it just right. So she sees no damage then says to me, "And what are you going to show them?"

I knew exactly what she was getting at. It was more in her body language than what she'd said. "So if I call a cop out here what are you saying? That you're going to lie and say you never hit me?"

This old, twisted bitch says, "Exactly."

At this point, with my kids out of earshot still tucked in the car, I called her a few choice words, and she gets in her car and arrogantly starts to drive off. Now the rain is coming down hard. I had her plate number. I could have called. Maybe I should have called. But it's raining, I have a 3 year old and a 20 month old who would get crankier by the minute as we'd sit around and wait. And I can imagine in the end nothing would have been done about this old bat. We are seeing more an more movement towards bigger easier to read road signs and wider traffic lanes all to accommodate people who should instead be dealt with harshly. I suppose what bothered me most about all this is many of us have this image of the poor doddering old driver who doesn't even know the havoc they're causing and can only see their independence slipping away. But here was a woman who was probably a bitch when she was 25, still a bitch whe she was 45, still at 65 and even now when she was 85, and who couldn't physically handle driving any longer but was mentally still with it enough to know right from wrong. And chose wrong over right.

HURRICANES FROM SPACE

As hurricane Ike gets ready to arbitrarily raise gasoline prices, or do whatever the hell it is going to do, click on this link and check out some very cool images courtesy NASA. Spectacular shots of hurricanes from outer space in amazing detail. It's cool shit.
Here's the link. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/hurricanes_as_seen_from_orbit.html

"DETROIT, YOU HAVE SET ME UP FOR A COMEBACK."

Did I just hear that right? Oh man, I think this thug's street name should be Narcissus he's so freakin' in love with himself. Tonight's goodbye speech was actually a campaign speech. Unbelievable. How about him going on the attack that this was all politics and going after Jennifer Granholm as if she just had it out for him. What else was she supposed to do when City Council petitions her for a hearing? Ignore it? Said no? That would have been complete dereliction of duty. Then he goes on to list his administration's wonderful accomplishments and wraps it up with saying 'you have set me up or a comeback'. He wants to run again someday. Mind boggling.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING?

I've never liked Kwame Kilpatrick, but it wasn't because of his politics. I didn't like that he was a liar, that he clung to nepotism like birthright by proxy, that in short he abused his power. He could have been great. He had the intelligence and seemed to have the drive. At one point he was such a fast rising political star. He threw it all away ultimately over sex. What was he thinking? Had he just come clean about his affairs to begin with he may have done great things in bringing the city back. Instead he abused the e.p.u. to facilitate his getting some 'strange'. He took good cops like Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope and killed their careers, lied about them, tried to kill their reputations. What was he thinking? To make matters worse, he covered up each lie with another lie. He arrogantly let the whistle blower case go to trial. He tried to settle only when the text messages were on the line, so again, more cover-up, and that's when things were reaching the point of no return only he couldn't see it. Remember when he was on the witness stand and acted so self-righteous and indignant at the suggestion he'd had an affair with Beatty, and he went on to talk about how he had been such close friends with Beatty's husband, how their kids were all friends, how he'd never do such a thing? How do you let anything get that far and think you'll get out of it?

I think the plea bargain was fair all the way around. Kwame's pastor was on the radio today expressing his 'shock' that Kim Worthy went after jail time. Talk of the man's public humiliation being enough. Spare me. He could have spent years in prison for what he did. Others think he still should. I think with his resignation, his opting for the guilty plea (where he had to state out loud that he lied under oath more than once) over a no-contest plea, his loss of his pension, his having to pay one million dollars restitution, his loss of law license, his five year probation...given all that, I think the 120 days in Wayne County is just about right.

You could almost, almost, but not quite feel sorry for him as you watched this morning. Christine Beatty sat there looking drawn, defeated, like the woman wearing a scarlet letter. Carlita Kilpatrick looked beat up and haggard the way a president will age so quickly from the stress. But Kwame did a heroic job of looking as stoic as he could and seemed to have something left in the tank, even if it was only hubris. He even smiled a time or two, as if whistling by the graveyard of his own hopes and dreams. For all the stoicism and short smiles, occasional laughs and even his one sarcasm in court today, the eyes told a different story. They were haunted. There are stories in there that will never be told. Today he hung it all up; his job, his freedom, his money, and his lies, and watching his eyes you had to wonder, what was he thinking?

CONGRATULATIONS

to my former producer Bill "The Beaver" Tortoriello and his beautiful wife Renee on the birth of their first child today at 2:15 pm. Sofia Marie Tortoriello was born 8 lbs 10 oz, 20 inches, and I'm sure full of attitude. Hey, it's Da Beav's little girl, fuhgeddaboutit! I'm so happy for these two wonderful people. They are going to be such good parents. I miss working with the guy but I'm so glad they are starting this crazy new chapter together and that everything's turning out great for him. The Beaver, a father. Dam!